His Shirt
by sleepysleepythoughts
Summary: Abed has some feelings he hasn't processed yet, and Annie's daydreaming about being married again. Loosely inspired by 4x03.


_**AN:**__ Hey everyone! Kind of like my first story was inspired by Episode 2, this one is inspired by Episode 3. It was a tough episode for us Annie/Abed shippers, but hopefully you guys can find solace in this little story. It's a bit weird but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway! Thanks! :)_

* * *

She's drying her hair and listening to Beyonce, and he's standing outside her bedroom door, as he has been doing for the past 4 and a half minutes. For some reason.

He and Annie are always the first to wake in the morning. She had always gotten up bright and early, ever since high school, so as to make sure she'd have time to shower, dry and straighten her hair, put on her makeup perfectly, and dress herself in the outfit she'd layed out the night before. When she moved into Casa del Trobed she started waking up even earlier so she'd have time to make them breakfast. They had never asked her to do so, but there was something about that look of joy and adoration on their faces when they saw a plate full of pancakes in the morning that warmed her heart, to the point that she was more than willing to make the sacrifice.

Abed had always gotten up 10 or so minutes before Troy so he could have the first shower, but there was no real reason for him to get up "early" early. All he had to do was put on his jeans and one of his many t-shirt-and-hoodie combos and he was good to go.

So why, ever since a certain doe-eyed study group member had moved in, had he taken to getting up a full hour before school?

And why is he standing outside her bedroom door?

He doesn't plan on knocking or calling her. She doesn't even know he's awake, and she's left the door open the tiniest crack- but not enough for him to actually see anything.

What he's doing makes no logical sense.

So _why?_

Abed slowly closes his eyes and breathes out.

He knows why.

It's _Annie._

He'd always liked Annie as a friend, ever since she got him those Indiana Jones DVDs back in their first days of school. In the past year or so, they'd been getting closer and closer, until she became his second best friend, after Troy, of course. They played in the Dreamatorium together, and when that got taken down, she made a truly sincere effort to play with him in the mini version. She'd taught him empathy. She made him pancakes. They watched Cougar Town together. She'd been Princess Leia when he was Han Solo. She was the first person to save him from that locker, and tell him he was good enough.

Annie was perhaps the kindest soul he'd ever met. She would do anything for her friends, anything at all, even if it inconvenienced her terribly. She understood him better than almost anyone, and even when she didn't, she tried to, with a determination and drive that never ceased to surprise him. She was amazing.

She was just... Annie.

And these days, Abed wasn't quite sure how to deal with the way Annie made him feel.

She was so clearly still infatuated with Jeff, despite what she'd told him that first day in the Dreamatorium. She'd said she didn't love him, and there it was- a tiny possibility, that inkling he'd apparently had forever, that hint of something _more. _But that spark of hope was extinguished as soon as the summer ended and he noticed how much extra time she'd put into perfectly applying her makeup, how obsessively she'd brushed her hair, the obvious care she'd put into choosing her outfit for the first day back at school. After everything, she still wanted to impress him. She still wanted _him. _It was so frustrating- she deserved better than someone who would mess around with her like that, never telling her what the relationship was and letting her flounder.

She deserves better than that. Whether that meant himself or not was something he still had to figure out.

It's been 7 minutes now, and he can't help himself: he slowly and silently nudges the door open the tiniest bit more, just enough so that he can see her reflection in her mirror.

_"Love on Top" _is playing from her iPod speakers, loud enough that she can hear it over the hairdryer but not so loud that it will wake up Troy. The smell of vanilla and strawberry-banana bubblegum wafts out of the bedroom, and for a second it's like she's standing right next to him, and he can't breathe.

And then he sees her, sitting across from the mirror on her dressing table, just finishing up with blow-drying her hair. Her face is tinted pink from the hot water in the shower, totally clean and free of makeup. Abed thinks that's when she's at her prettiest.

She turns off the hair dryer and gets up to unplug it, and for the first time Abed notices that she's wearing a men's red flannel shirt that way too big for her.

He instantly recognizes it as his own.

_I don't remember giving that to her, _he thinks, puzzled._ She must have taken it._

And yet, that made no sense to him. Why would she take it? He would have happily given it to her, but why would she even want it?

She smiles a little smile and runs her hands down the front of the shirt, slowly and gently, like she's stroking a kitten. She starts to sing along softly to the music playing from her speakers as she searches for her hairbrush, nodding to the beat and swaying her hips back and forth.

Abed closes his eyes. _God, she's beautiful._

_And I'm pathetic. This is pathetic._

All of sudden he's ashamed- she's not wearing any pyjama bottoms, and he feels like a peeping Tom. She would not appreciate him spying on her like this, so he won't do it.

_Empathy_.

He turns to leave, when all of a sudden he hears her voice.

His heart stops, thinking she's seen him and she's figured it out, she knows, and she's ready to laugh at him for being so idiotic.

But then his mind registers her words and it's like a paralel universe.

He thinks he must have heard her wrong but then she says it again, or more accurately, murmurs it, quiet and pondering, like a Disney heroine alone in her castle.

"...Mrs. Abed Nadir".

He's positive this time. Abed takes a step forward and peeks at her through the door again, and she holding her hair brush, gazing at it thoughfully, while running her hand over the shirt again.

_His_ shirt.

"Oh, darling, there's no time to roleplay Inspector Spacetime!", she continues, still in that dreamy murmur. "I need to get to work at the hospital! What's that? You can't bear to be parted from me? Even Troy couldn't replace me? Oh well, maybe I can call in sick... no, absolutely not, I have to get to work! You'll just have to do without me for today! While I'm gone you can keep writing your screenplay, so you can become a world famous director. And then you'll take me to your movie premieres, and treat me like a princess. That would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Abed can't breathe.

It's like the whole world has stopped and he has no idea what to do. He knew she playacted being married to guys she had crushes on. Jeff, Troy, and most importantly, Zac Efron. She'd mentioned it to him over the summer, her face burning red with embarassment. He had understood- after all, it really wasn't any different from what he did with Don Draper and Han Solo and Batman and Inspector Spacetime. In fact, he remembers feeling closer to her than ever, like they understood each other on a new level.

And yes, he'd been slightly annoyed that he wasn't one of the men she imagined being married to.

But this was something else.

After a moment or two, she giggles quietly and goes to sit back down at her dressing table, starting to brush her hair softly, humming along to the next track on the Beyonce album that has started playing.

Abed slowly backs away from the door, retreating as quickly and quietly as he can to the safety of his blanket fort. In the blanket fort there are no beautiful girls with really shiny hair and huge eyes who can confuse him, and in the blanket fort he's just a kid with no scary adult problems.

None of this makes any sense.

But he has to admit to himself that it's pretty amazing.


End file.
